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Post by noktorn on Dec 31, 2023 1:06:21 GMT
Good evening and Happy Holidays everyone!
It's been a long time since i've posted, but i've once again come around to looking for a new sword. I was looking for a nice Katana in the $350-475 range. Jkoo is off the table due to bad experiences, and while i'd love a Huawei, I don't know if I like the idea of throwing money into a black hole with no guarantee of ever receiving anything (and god forbid you ask for updates). Long story short--I came across RvA katana (wasn't around the last time I was in the market for a blade).
I was interested in a few of the blades on their site, notably a lot of the Moritaka blades in the $400-475 range, as well as a couple of the Phoenix Arms blades in the same price range. They look relatively nice, particularly the hamons in the Moritaka blades. But i've never heard of either brand, and was wondering if anyone has had experiences with Moritaka and/or Phoenix Arms.
Other suggestions would be great, too! I had looked at Zsey, but their prices have gone up a lot since I last checked, or they dumped their sub-$800 offerings.
Thanks for any help!
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Post by larason2 on Dec 31, 2023 1:26:16 GMT
I've had a good experience recently with Wang 2011, and Ryansword comes well recommended. I think we've had some reviews on cloudhammer here recently (afiliated with RVA it appears).
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Arlequin
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Post by Arlequin on Dec 31, 2023 1:46:54 GMT
I would suggest shadowdancer sword, they're partnerd with Zsey and can offer similar quality for a slightly better price. If you check the review section someone just posted about one of their swords.
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Post by miraculix101 on Dec 31, 2023 5:51:29 GMT
As far as i know, Moritaka brand for Cloudhammer is in real Shinken of swords.
And i personally dont think that dragonsword quality is above shinken of sword. Some reviews here, from Alientude and Juardian point the other way.
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Post by noktorn on Jan 1, 2024 4:22:00 GMT
I would suggest shadowdancer sword, they're partnerd with Zsey and can offer similar quality for a slightly better price. If you check the review section someone just posted about one of their swords. For the price, do you think they offer a comparable quality to say, Huawei? I've had a good experience recently with Wang 2011, and Ryansword comes well recommended. I think we've had some reviews on cloudhammer here recently (afiliated with RVA it appears). I've looked at Wang on ebay, and it's kind of hard to tell what i'm looking at. A lot of the offerings land in the sub $200 range, and there's a lot of very...anime looking blades. Are there any particular offerings you recommend or have experience with? As far as i know, Moritaka brand for Cloudhammer is in real Shinken of swords. And i personally dont think that dragonsword quality is above shinken of sword. Some reviews here, from Alientude and Juardian point the other way. Thanks for the clarification! Moritaka stuff definitely looks like the L6 blades on Shinken Sword. I've been quite interested in them. Why would you say you think Shinken Swords is better? Turns out I own a Shinken Swords, back when they used to go by Tsunami Dragon. I got a laminated wakizashi. It had a well done Saya and very pretty blade, but everything else was pretty meh. That being said, I think it only cost me a little over $200, so I can't complain about the tradeoffs. Also: Happy New Year everyone!
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Post by larason2 on Jan 1, 2024 4:49:20 GMT
I got a high grade damascus bare blade from them. The quality was great for the money, and it's one of my only replicas that is authentically water quenched. I don't have any experience with the fittings, but at that price range, every Chinese forge uses the same fittings. Look at this one: www.ebay.com/itm/404595271502?hash=item5e33c1e74e:g:j2MAAOSwPq9i7jZSIn my opinion, the value for what you pay is great. You'd easily pay $450 from most other forges for the same thing. I paid $386 plus shipping for a comparable bare blade at Jkoo.
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Arlequin
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Post by Arlequin on Jan 1, 2024 7:34:37 GMT
To the Huawei comparison, yes and no. The issue is Huawei makes a pretty unique style of blade that none of the other productions are really doing. They can probably do that style if you take the time to draw up the specs, but it will cost extra as a custom design. How ever, in other regards they are good. Their tsuka are quite nicely shaped, and their monosteel blades are quite well regarded. Im not too sure on their more polished blades as they seem to be getting some unknown degree of guidance from Zsey, but they atleast still look nicer than than the generic mirror polishes the other lq forges do.
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Post by metinemre on Jan 2, 2024 18:01:38 GMT
I`m very happy with dragonsword/shadow dancer. (Also with Huawei but I purchased an in stock item, before the communications crisis started) Also rva katana (cloudhammer) is awesome. John is extremely fast to respond and friendly. Great company to deal with. I highly suggest their sx105v katana. Some are discounted pretty good right now. cloudhammerforge.com/search?q=sx105v&options%5Bprefix%5D=last
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Post by bd68 on Jan 2, 2024 19:27:19 GMT
I just bought a cloudhammer w2 katana from RVA. It is pretty decent for the price. The hamon is prominent and looks great (it's a choji hamon). The fittings are kind of plain, but the katana feels good in the hand. They shipped it the day after I bought it and responded to all my questions very quickly.
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Post by blairbob on Jan 4, 2024 2:21:09 GMT
John told me that ShinkenOfSwords tends to have really long delivery times for their big batches. Dunno about individual swords but it makes me think, it's better to just get one from RVA than bother from SoS though apparently they make nice stuff (there are only a few reviews out there, even from their older names)
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Post by noktorn on Jan 4, 2024 6:34:29 GMT
John told me that ShinkenOfSwords tends to have really long delivery times for their big batches. Dunno about individual swords but it makes me think, it's better to just get one from RVA than bother from SoS though apparently they make nice stuff (there are only a few reviews out there, even from their older names) I can confirm this, at least by my one example. I bought a wakizashi a couple years ago from them, and the blade is quite nice. Well made saya too, just very meh mounts--which was acceptable for the sub $250 I paid for it. I decided to go with one of the L6 Moritakas, as well as an O-Kissaki blade in Shirasaya straight from Shinken Sword. Thanks all for your help everyone! I'll let you all know how the swords turn out. I reckon I should receive the Moritaka relatively quickly, and the other probably in a month or two, what with Chinese New Years coming up.
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